Defender Jonna Andersson has committed to her future at Chelsea Women by extending her contact until 2022.
The Swede joined the club midway through the 2017/18 season from Linkopings and played a significant role in the Blues’ double-winning season having shone as a left wing-back in the second half of the campaign.
The 26-year-old has made 57 appearances as a Blue so far and this term she has featured in all 10 games, with seven of them being starts on the left-hand side of Emma Hayes’ XI.
Signing the extension, Andersson said: ‘It means a lot, it’s a really professional club and I have enjoyed the two years here so I’m really happy that I’m going to stay until 2022.’
Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes added: ‘Jonna has proved to be a solid and consistent performer for Chelsea. Her availability for this team has been top notch and she’s a thoughtful, intelligent, tactical player that I hope with this commitment we can really push her further.
‘We want to keep building upon what has been an already strong start to her Chelsea career and I’m really happy that she agreed to stay with us for a lot longer.’
Having achieved success in her first season at Chelsea, Andersson is keen to keep pushing herself as a player, while also helping us achieve our trophy aspirations after an unbeaten start to the campaign.
‘I feel fitter than I did two years ago,' she said. 'I’m stronger and I feel like I can develop as a player more attacking and defensive wise, so it’s been good years for me.
‘I am enjoying playing a little bit more forward, I enjoy crossing and being higher up on the pitch. That’s what I like to do, I try to run up and down to help with attacking phases, but also make sure I get back to defend – I’m happy with my position.
‘We need every player here even if you’re starting or on the bench. You have seen what we have done and you have seen that it’s the bench players that finished the game well so we need everyone and it’s good competition for every player.
‘If I compare when I came here from two years ago I think everything is much harder. Before you could see the difference in the top and the bottom of the league, but now when you have a league game we know it’s going to be really tough and hard game.
‘We know that Chelsea want to win trophies, we want to win the title, we want to win the cups and we want to be in the Champions League final and we want to win the Champions League. We are here to win trophies and I hope we are going to do that in the next years.’
Andersson recently switched her shirt number from 20 to 25, upon the signing of Australian forward Sam Kerr. And the Scandinavian spoke about the significance that her new squad number holds for her, plus the excitement of playing with her new Chelsea team-mate.
‘It’s a new number, a little bit special to change number in the middle of the season but for me I feel happy with 25 because I had it for nine years with Linkopings. It’s still a special number for me so I think I’m going to feel fine with that number as well.
‘She Sam Kerr is a really good player and a really good forward so I’m looking forward to playing with her. It’s going to be interesting to see what she can do for us and with us and I hope we achieve something really special.’
Andersson and her Chelsea team have two WSL games on the road as we travel to Birmingham City on Sunday, a game you can watch live on BT Sport, followed by a trip to Everton the weekend after.
Sunday 8 December we return to Kingsmeadow to play Manchester City. After our game against Man United sold out, we are expecting another bumper crowd. Book your tickets now to ensure you do not miss out!